Modding an F-350 up or an F-550 down for TC

Just Jeff wrote:
Given that you can get the same engine in an F-350 and F-550, which do you think would be better - beefing up the suspension and brakes on an F-350 so you don't need a custom bed, or buying an F-550 and customizing the bed to accept a TC?

It seems that, because of the custom work needed to put a TC on a flatbed and make it look nice, there's still several thousand dollars of work needed...but you get one heck of a nice vehicle out of it. I'd probably look at doing the SRW conversion so I could take it off-road without worrying about rocks/sticks between the tires.

But F-350s are much more common, and you wouldn't have to do much of anything to the bed for it to accept a TC with the proper COG and such, so that could be a significant savings over the F-550. That savings could then go into beefing up the brakes and suspension in the F-350.

Which one would be cheaper and easier?

It'll be several years, but after the kids are gone we're looking at swapping to a nice TC (over 11', slides, etc) on a truck capable enough for Forest Service roads so we can get to some back country sites. I'm thinking of something like these examples, and I really like boblynch's setup.

Any thoughts?

Jeff
I can give you an opinion based on my experince. Keep in mind I was not looking at new.
I owned a 94 F350 with 7.3 Turbo and 4.10 gears. I loaded a 94 caribou 3500 lb dry on it and it did squat about 2 in but was not an issue. Now I wanted to tow a race truck on a flatbed trailer. 1500 lb trailer and 3800 lb truck. required a 48" extention.
I Bought a 99 F550. You do not have to put a flat bed on the truck you can have a standard dually bed on it. same bed as the F350 dually.
It came with 4.88 gears. unloaded at 70 mph no hills 15 MPG. same stretch of I10 with camper 12 MPG
Truck cost $7K.
All F550's come as cab and chasis to dealer and are modified with various beds.
F550 is far more stable. There is no way to upgrade a
F350 to the F550 abilities.